Sanatization of SPonges, brushes, paints....HOw To?

Hi,
How do you clean and "sanatize your brushes, sponges or paints after a gig? What do you use? I usually wash my tools with warm ivory soap and water or use Dr Bronner's Liquid castile soap. Also if we can use a brush with paint on multiple faces then why is it not OK to reuse a sponge? Isn't it the same idea?
If I use several colors on a face and must use a new sponge each time and for each child...that's ALOT of sponges!!! Does anyone use them several times over?
Thanks.

I do use one sponge for each colour or colour combination (i.e. rainbows) and I use it on multiple children. I know that in some places, health regulations do not allow you to do that. There are regulations in some places that do require rigorous cleaning of the brushes at each stage of painting, and require a fresh sponge per child.

I do often grab a new sponge for a colour throughout the day and discard the previous one, for whatever reason. Maybe the kid's nose wasn't all that clean, maybe it was a pimply teenager. I use my judgement, and I am pretty picky.

As for washing my stuff after a gig - I wash and rinse all my sponges thoroughly, with Ivory soap, multiple times, by hand. I also wash all my brushes carefully and rub them over a bar of soap and clean them thoroughly. I do not use alcohol or anything like that to sanitize anything.

But, I am new at this and so you should take whatever I say with a grain of salt! I do what makes sense to me and I take the precautions that I feel are prudent without being too paranoid. I could be totally wrong!

This actually has been discussed numerous times.... I typed in "cleaning brushes" in the search box and there are 31 matches - have a quick read of those and you probably will find a lot of information to answer your questions.

Rules vary by jurisdiction (some, like those of us in Alberta have to follow health regulations and are actually inspected! some have no rules to follow at all)...

I wash my sponges in hot water thru my washing machine after the gig. I also wash my brushes in masters soap to remove the paint and then soak them in alcohol to sanitize them.

I soak my sponges in water and clorox - the clorox helps take out the color stains and kills anything that might be living in them =). I have always liked using Dawn dish soap to clean my brushes - it gets more color out than anything I've tried. Once every few weeks I soak them in alcohol to get rid of anything that might be building up where the soap hasn't gotten in between uses.

I reuse my sponges, one for each color or rainbow/split cake, until I get a child who coughs on it, has a runny nose (I wipe it first, but still...) or if I use it to color their hairline.

The other threads will help & I was all over them when I 1st started because I wanted to have the cleanest kit possible.
I use 1 sponge per child. I have a lot of sponges. I base the # of sponges off how many kids I can face paint in an hour(about 20) and add 10 more(just in case). I've gotten very good at double & triple loading my sponge.
For my brushes, I rinse with clean water between kids. I feel pretty safe doing this as I use q-tips for mouths & don't paint on the eyes w/ a brush.
When I get home I wash the brushes with ivory soap, rinse & repeat till clean. Then I dip & swish in alcohol & let them dry.
I throw my used sponges in a bucket with water till I get home & rinse them till they are fairly clean of excess paint. I then wash them with Ivory soap, rinse & repeat till clean. I put them in a mesh bag & wash them w/ laundry soap(fragrance free) on hot in the washer. I let them air dry.
I also regularly(once a week or more depending how busy I am) wipe down my kit & cases w/ anti-bacterial wipes(I hate looking at a face painting kit & it looks gross).
I have no regulations where I live.

I've never thought about putting my brushes in the washer. It doesn't hurt ur brushes? I may try that. It would sure beat scrubbing them all individually by hand.

NO don't put your brushes in the washer!! They come out wrecked!

Keesha wrote:I've never thought about putting my brushes in the washer. It doesn't hurt ur brushes? I may try that. It would sure beat scrubbing them all individually by hand.

Argh!!!! Are you crazy?? Ha ha ha

Back to the subject, regarding all those sponges, you get used to them and they're not expensive really, you can use a big carwash peanut shaped sponge (clean and new of course) cut into chunks and that's fine. As for cleaning my kit... I find it quiet theraputic.

I've read multiple postings on products used to clean and sanitize brushes and sponges but how do you actually clean the bristles of the brushes. Do you rub them between your fingers or just swipe the brush back and forth on the soap or your hand or the sink? Some makeup is harder to get out than others (wolfe black) and I have never seen anyone address this subject. I am really in the dark as to how to really clean them.

Wolfe black will stain your brushes a little I wash my brushes in hot water and Pink soap that's made for brushes it cleans them very well and it has a conditioner in it. But Im very particular about the care of my brushes because I consider them an investment I have a ton of them so that if I feel I need to retire one during an event due to a kid having the sniffles that I didnt notice til i started or something i can. I have at least 3 of each kind of brush. Some I have had for years and years.

I also use Qtips for lip color.

I soak my sponges in a mixture of Dawn and a little Clorox ( i squeeze them all well in the solution, I use rubber gloves to protect my hands) in super hot water and let them set til the water is no longer hot but tepid about 15 mins then I wash them all individually and rinse well I let mine dry overnight in the sink drainer.

During an event I use two water cups one to rinse of inital paint and one with brush bath in it to help sanitize the brush. I dump the cups about everyother kid or face painting cause I doint like the water to get that brown yucky color.

Sponges I use one per kid.

I wipe down my paints with an antibacterial wipe to neaten everything up and I let them dry thoroughly.

I normally take everything out of my fat max and squirt her down with my myers counter spray and then wipe it down good.

This Drives my sister absolutely nuts caused i take of the kitchen for the rest of the evening but Im OCD so if i dont do it I wont sleep.

Wolfe black will stain your brushes a little I wash my brushes in hot water and Pink soap that's made for brushes it cleans them very well and it has a conditioner in it. [quote]

But how do you actually clean the bristles? Are you swishing the bristles in soap and water or gently rubbing the bristles with your fingers or something else?

I have an old plastic silver ware tray that long and only about 2inches deep that I put a little pink soap and very warm water I lay them in there and I let it sit at least 5 minutes most times longer as I normally am breaking down my kit for cleaning. Then I put just a dab of the pink soap on it and work the bristles gently from base to top, rinse well and reshape and put in a cup or whatever so that the bristles can dry completely in the correct shape.

To wash my brushes at home - I get them wet by sticking under a dripping tap, then stroke on the bar of soap (I use Ivory or Purity Soap from Reef Botanicals, then I work the bristles in the palm of my hand - I want to work the soap through the loofe to get all the pigment out of it. Then I stick it back under the dribbling stream of water to rinse it out. If there is still colour, I repeat as necessary. Then shape the hair with my fingers and lay flat on the edge of the counter to dry.

While I'm working, I rinse off the paint in my dirty sponge bucket (it has water in it) then stroke across a bar of Ivory, then scrub the loofe in the ridged part of my water tub, then rinse once, rinse twice, then saturate in 70% isopropyl alcohol, and stand to dry in the holes around the edge of my water tub.

Thank you. Your information really has helped!!

I use pink soap to clean mine in. But the Ivory soap is probably a lot cheaper! I never thought of using that. Usually I add some brush bath to one of my containers. I keep two rinsing containers..one to wash in and one to dip my brush in to wet my paints. The brush bath smells really good, and it sanitizes. Then I wash in really hot water and clean in the pink soap once I get done. I don't know if that is the most economical way to do it though, the brush bath is between $7 to $10 and the pink soap is about $8 or so...at least where I live at.

I love the brush bath too.

Keesha wrote:I've never thought about putting my brushes in the washer. It doesn't hurt ur brushes? I may try that. It would sure beat scrubbing them all individually by hand.

I hope you meant sponges, not brushes
I wouldn't put a brush in the washer.
My sponges are fine in the washer & come out nice & sanitized(no fabric softener, it'll ruin their absorbency).

I use the "beauty so clean" products they are specifically designed for make-up sanitizing and can be used for face paint as well! Check them out!

Old thread again..... About brushes... My bristles are starting to separate. Is there something to re condition them? Or would this be the hot water system suggested for bent bristles? Thanks

Vegas Mom, you can use a product for brushes called "Brush Shaper". It washes right out of your brushes and you can pick it up just about anywhere that sells art supplies. I have also read someone's post about using hair gel as well. Whatever you use, rinse well before you load your brush to remove the product.

You can also use Ivory soap to reshape, just work it into a heavy paste, then shape, and leave to dry.

Shannon Fennell wrote:To wash my brushes at home - I get them wet by sticking under a dripping tap, then stroke on the bar of soap (I use Ivory or Purity Soap from Reef Botanicals, then I work the bristles in the palm of my hand - I want to work the soap through the loofe to get all the pigment out of it.  Then I stick it back under the dribbling stream of water to rinse it out. If there is still colour, I repeat as necessary.  Then shape the hair with my fingers and lay flat on the edge of the counter to dry.

While I'm working, I rinse off the paint in my dirty sponge bucket (it has water in it) then stroke across a bar of Ivory, then scrub the loofe in the ridged part of my water tub, then rinse once, rinse twice, then saturate in 70% isopropyl alcohol, and stand to dry in the holes around the edge of my water tub.

Shannon how many people are you able to paint per hour washing your brushes this way? I found this topic while searching through insurance topics. I'm still confused about how many brushes you guys are using. I thought everyone had said they use a new brush for each person? Does this mean if you paint 200 people at an event, then you have 200 brushes on hand? Or does it just mean that you're washing and using a cleaned brush on each person? I know you use a new sponge and then wash them all when you get home, are you doing the same with brushes and using 200 brushes at a large event? I'm just really confused on how many brushes I'm needing to order. If you were to do a large concert where you were being paid hourly and your employer was having you do free face painting would you have an assistant there to help wash brushes while you paint? I'm up to about 30 - 40 people per hour doing small designs, I can't imagine being able to keep up with the crowd if I were washing my brushes like that =( I'm only charging $25 per hour as it is... so I already feel like a cheap work horse lol. Should I look at hiring someone to just stand behind me and wash brushes as I use them, that way I can stay at my insane pace? Or do I just need to tell my employer that 15 people per hour is my limit because I need to spend more time sanitizing items?

I just started painting a year ago... I did maybe 5 birthday parties in a year, then got picked up by a MAJOR insurance agency to do painting at their promotional events. I've now done 7 events in two months where the smallest crowd was 1,000 people. So I'm a little overwhelmed and needing guidance. I don't mind the work involved with painting 100 - 200 people... but with the company giving it away free it never gives me a break to focus on super sanitation. I'd like to know what is standard practice when you're doing events that have so many people that you've narrowed the design choices to 5 or 6 designs. Mostly just swirls around eyes, star, etc. Think David Bowie or Kesha =)

Where would I go to find out what the guidelines for sanitation are in my area?

jon w hunt, I took the time to count my brushes for you today

I have 57 brushes.
20 rounds, 20 flats, a butterfly fan brush, a double filbert, and 15 filberts.

each design typically takes me 3-4 brushes.

I wash and sanitize between people....

I've never done 200 people at an event, nor have I ever worked for $25 an hour.

The cheapest party, my first party, I only worked for $30....guess what, that barely covered the cost of gas just to get there and back.

I immediately raised my price to cover at the very least, the cost of new sponges, the fuel, and my paints.........and a little extra to contribute to my insurance and other costs, like childcare.



I don't narrow my designs-I narrow my paint selection.

If I have 30 kids to do in one hour, they will still get a variety of designs-whatever they request...but I will only use the same cakes.......so instead of outlining in various shades of color, everybody gets black lines and white highlights. still looks good, I think. instead of letting them pick the colors, they get either the rainbow neon/pink/purple cake, or the basic rainbow/red/blue cake.